One of the biggest mistakes sales people make is to go into a sales call with a prospect or customer and talk, talk, talk. In fact, when coaching we often find that sales people talk more than the prospect does. By A LOT!
Seriously, you need to SHUT UP. And we mean that in the nicest possible way.
Selling is largely a process of learning what your customer needs—what they do, how they do it, with whom they do it with, why they do it that way…all BEFORE telling them how you will help them do it better. How can you accomplish this if you’re talking all the time?
We know this to be true, yet we can’t seem to stop ourselves from talking. Why?
Well, because when silence lingers it is human nature to fill it. But you must fight the urge, whatever it takes—bite the inside of your mouth if you must—and let your prospect do the talking. Count to ten and if the prospect still hasn’t filled the space, ask a question…and then shut up and wait for their answer.
This technique really works. Most of the time you will find that the prospect/customer will tell you things you haven’t even asked for…which is exactly the position you want to be in when selling.
So try it…just SHUT UP!
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